Jewels
by Kitsune Moonstar
Summary: Five drabbles about the senshi and the generals. Opal: Usagi would have never belived this future if she'd been told about it when she was fourteen.
1. Sapphire

Author's note: I don't own Sailor Moon or its characters. This is slightly AU.

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**Sapphire**

Ami sighed and sank onto the cot in the room designated for residents in her department. It had been a nearly twenty-four hour shift do to some emergencies, and she was still on call. All she wanted right now as a nap, but her back was hurting enough that she probably wouldn't be able to get any rest. The aspirin she had taken earlier didn't seem to be helping at all. Running her hands through her short hair, Ami sighed again. As much as she loved her work, weeks like this one could be brutal. She had known what she was getting in to when she had applied to medical school, but the reality was harder to cope with at times than she had expected.

A pair of warm hands settled on her shoulders and began to knead away some of her tension. Ami leaned into the touch.

"Bad shift?" A warm tenor voice asked.

"It was a long one, and I had a couple of kids who really didn't like getting their ivs put in."

A kiss was pressed to the nape of her neck, and Ami smiled. Zach was one of the best things to happen to her. They had actually met in medical school, and through persistence, bribery, and blackmail, he had managed to get her to agree to a date. And they had clicked. Zach was smart, witty, and kind. He understood her love of medicine in a way that very few people did. As medical school progress, Zach had developed the habit of popping in on her, bring coffee, some sort of snack, or just something that would brighten her day. He had a confidence in her that made it easy for Ami to believe in herself at times.

"How much longer until you're off?"

"Another twelve hours. Why?"

"You have the next three days off, and so do I. I was thinking that we could borrow my aunt's beach cabin for a couple of them. Have some time for just the two of us."

Ami reached up touch the sapphire ring that hung on the chain around her neck. They had been engaged for only a week or so now, and they really hadn't had any time to celebrate. Besides, she was not one to turn down a trip to the ocean.

"That sounds lovely."

Zach turned her enough that he could kiss her. "Sounds like a plan. Get some rest, sweetheart."

His pager buzzed, and Zach gave her an apologetic smile. "I'll see you after work."

Ami settled down on the cot with a smile and closed her eyes. Only twelve more hours.


	2. Ruby

Author's note: I don't own Sailor Moon or its characters. This is slightly AU.

* * *

**Ruby**

Jaden ducked. The book impacted on the wall. Rei glowered at him. All and all it was a pretty normal day.

"So I take it you're not that pleased about having to deal with your guests and fellow mikos flirting with me?"

"What gave it away?"

Rei really was quite beautiful when she was angry. Her anger made her cheeks flush and her eyes sparkle. That was probably why he couldn't resist baiting her much of the time.

"I wasn't flirting back."

She made a little noise in the back of her throat. "I know."

It sounded like she was just having a bad day then. Jaden smiled at her. "You can throw another book at me if it will make you feel better. Or, and I like this idea better, you can stop throwing things at me, and I can take you out for dinner."

Arching one eyebrow at him, Rei smiled. "And when you say dinner, you do mean some place other than MacDonald's, don't you."

Jaden held up his hands in defense. "Hey, that was a fun date. You got jewelry out of it didn't you?"

Rei laughed and glanced down at the gold and ruby ring that graced her hand. "I wasn't expecting a proposal of marriage at a fast food restaurant."

"It's where we met wasn't it?"

"If you can call you stealing my French fries meeting, then yes."

It had been an honest mistake on his part, though Jaden doubted Rei would ever see it that way. He and Zach had been grabbing a quick lunch together before Zach had needed to get back to the hospital. Jaden had accidentally grabbed Rei's fries along with the rest of their order, and then had been confronted with an irate woman who had threatened him within an inch of his life before walking off with her fries and his chocolate milkshake. Jaden had been entranced.

Of course, it had taken him quite a bit of time to convince Rei to speak to him again let alone go out with him. Luckily she had been a friend of Zach's girlfriend, so she had been easy enough to track down. That had probably been the easiest part of their whole relationship. Still, despite countless fights, hurled objects, threats of death, pranks, and fast food flitching, he and Rei had started something special. It had taken Jaden less than six months to realize that this was someone he never wanted to lose. He had prudently waited longer than that to tell Rei this. Building trust with her took time, but it was entirely worth it.

Gathering her into his arms, Jaden smiled. "I'll let you chose the restaurant."

Rei smiled. "Deal."


	3. Emerald

Author's note: I don't own Sailor Moon or its characters. This is slightly AU.

* * *

**Emerald**

"What's cooking, good looking?"

Makoto laughed at the bad pun. Nathan had dozen's of them. By now she was imperious to them all. She didn't look away from the curry she was making though. Nathan's arms slid around her waist, and he peered over her shoulder.

"Is this a new recipe or an old favorite?"

"A variation on an old favorite. I had an idea." In the shower no less. Why was it that recipe alterations came to her in the most inconvenient places?

"It smells wonderful."

Makoto knew that tone. "No, you can't have any until it's all done."

"Not even a taste?"

"No."

He was probably pouting. Makoto didn't turn around to see if he was or not. It would tempt her to give into him. Nathan's puppy dog eyes trick was sometimes hard to resist. She shook her head. There were days when she questioned her luck in that late night grocery run that had caused them to meet. Of all the aisles in all the grocery stores in Tokyo, he had somehow ended up in hers. She had unexpectedly run out of lemon extract, and she hadn't been about to wait until the next morning to try the recipe.

Nathan had been picking up vanilla on his way home from work, and somehow they had started discussing various flavor substitutions when it came to sweet breads. When she had left the grocery store that night, his business card had been safely tucked in her purse, and he had extracted a promise from her that he would get slice of the lemon cake she was making. And she had. Before Makoto knew she was dropping by the observatory to chat and exchange recipes on a regular basis, and things had simply grown from there.

It had been a surprise to them both to find someone who just fit with them perfectly. That wasn't to say that their relationship was easy. Makoto was not used to letting people into her life, and she had been burned by love before. And Nathan had his own set of issues to work through. Still, they both were stubborn, and neither of them had been willing to give up on this relationship. And over time it had gotten easier.

"If you want to be helpful, you can set the table. This should be ready in another ten minutes."

Nathan kissed her cheek. "All right."

She could hear him moving around the kitchen as he did so. It made a comforting background noise as she checked the curry once again. It was almost done. As Makoto licked her finger, trying to figure out if she needed to add anything to curry, the light caught the ring on her finger. The emerald was mounted in gold that looked like a garland of oak leaves. She couldn't say she had been surprised by the proposal when it had come last week. It had seemed sort of inevitable as Nathan's things seemed to migrate to her apartment, and her apartment became their apartment. Still, the fact that Nathan had gone out of his way to cook for her and take her on a picnic dinner to propose had been quite lovely.

With a flick of her wrist, Makoto turned off the stove and then lifted the saucepan of curry off the burner.

"Dinner's ready."

With a smile, she sat down to another dinner with her love. She was looking forward to doing this for a long time.


	4. Topaz

Author's note: I don't own Sailor Moon or its characters. This is slightly AU.

* * *

**Topaz**

Minako stretched out her legs, hooking them over the arm of the chair and basking in the midmorning sunlight. With her headphones on and the volume jacked up, she was pretty much oblivious to the rest of the world. Reading over scripts was not exactly her favorite activity. She was beginning to regret agreeing to do a small recurring role on a new TV series, but her agent had thought it was a good idea. At least the writing was decent. It was hard to take a role seriously sometimes when all your dialogue was completely cliché. As she read, Minako toyed with the platinum and topaz ring on her left hand. At least she no longer was looking for love in all the wrong places.

She nearly laughed at that. Love had found when she wasn't looking for it, and it had come from a direction that she had never expected. Keith had simply walked into her heart without any warning. Minako had gotten a part in a miniseries, and to help her understand her role, the studio had arranged for her to shadow a real police investigator. Minako had shown up at the police station that day expecting to spend half her time fighting to prove that she wasn't just another vapid blond actress. Keith had pleasantly surprised her by taking her seriously from the start. Of course, he hadn't cut her any slack either.

Still, it had been nice not to have to fight to be seen as an intelligent human being. Too many people took one look at her and dismissed her. Add in the fact that she was an actress, and it was a recipe for trouble. Keith had annoyed her some. It had taken her most of the day to discover his sense of humor. But he had known what he was doing, and he had made sure she understood it as well. She had come away from that day feeling confident about being authentic in the part she was going to play. Minako had also slipped one of her business cards in Keith's wallet after stealing on of his. She had hoped he would call her.

It still had surprised her when he actually had made the first move: an invitation to lunch disguised as a follow up to see if the shadowing had helped her with the part. True it had been a little hole in the wall place filled with police officers, but Minako still counted it as a first date.

"Mina-mine?" A pair of hands came to rest of her shoulders.

She nearly jumped out of skin then tilted her head back so she could see her fiancé. "Keith! Make some noise would you?"

He tugged out her earbuds. "Or you could turn down your music."

She wrinkled her nose at him. "I thought you were on graveyard shift this month. Shouldn't you be asleep or something?"

Keith slid his hands through her hair. "I got off shift early last night. They ended up calling in a bunch of people for a case, and when we got it closed, the captain decided to let me go early. I've had my requisite four hours of sleep."

It still amazed her that he could function on that little sleep. She smiled up at him. "So what are your plans for day then?"

"I was rather hoping to convince my fiancée to take a break from work and come out to lunch with me."

She let the script fall from her fingers. It would wait. Keith kissed her nose.

"Is that a yes?"

"Yes."


	5. Opal

Author's note: I don't own Sailor Moon or its characters. This is slightly AU.

* * *

**Opal**

Usagi giggled and snuggled into her husband's arms. She really should be working right now, but the young woman was more than willing to forsake her current project for some quality time with her husband. If you had told her when she and Mamoru had met back when she was fourteen that one day they would be happily married and completely in love, Usagi would have never believed it. If you had told her that she would be an award winning children's author, she would have called you insane. But it was all true.

Things had most definitely changed for her. Usagi would admit that she had never really had much in the way of plans for a career. Daydreams, yes, plans, no. But she had found that she had grown up in more ways that one. Writing children's books was something she had fallen into unexpectedly, but it was something that she enjoyed, and she was good at it. Mamoru had encouraged her from the start with that particular venture. With a content smile, Usagi glanced up at her husband's face. She was very glad they had gotten past the name calling start of their relationship. She knew now that Mamoru had teased her so much because he had liked her, and she had found him attractive if annoying as well.

All was well that ended well though. She absently twisted her engagement ring. She wore it on her right hand these days. The fact that Mamoru had chosen an opal instead of a diamond had surprised her at first, but she was rather found of the stone now. Mamoru had later told her he had chosen it because it was never quite the same twice and there was always a new facet of the stone to discover. He had said that reminded him of her. She liked the idea that there were still new discoveries to make about herself. Her ability to tell stories had been one of those discoveries.

Mamoru tightened his arms around her and pressed a kiss to her shoulder. "What are you thinking, Usako?"

"That I'm happy. That I'm glad things turned out the way they did," she laughed, "even if I wouldn't have believed it when we first met."

She could hear the smile in his voice. "Me too. I love you, Usako."

Usagi turned to kiss him properly. "I know. I love you too."

She snuggled back into the comfort of his arms, content to simply be with him for a while.


End file.
